Yes, the Cards were lucky to make the playoffs in the first place, but so were the Yankees in 2000 and plenty of other champions. What matters is how you do once you’re there, not how you got there.

The Cardinals team we saw over the last few weeks is the same one we’ve seen pretty much every year this decade, when they’ve been on one of the less-remarked upon runs of greatness I can think of. With the exception of this year and 2003, the Cardinals have won between 93 and 105 games every year this decade. In every year save 2003, they’ve either won the National League pennant or been beaten by the team that did. Short of the Yankees and Braves, no team has had a more successful run in the wild card era.

This wasn’t a one-off fluke, but the crowning and validating achievement of a truly great team that’s been truly great since before George W. Bush was in office and will probably continue to be great after he’s left office. During nearly all of this time they have had a transcendently great player in Pujols, likely future Hall of Famers in Rolen and Edmonds, several short-term aces like Carpenter and Matt Morris, and a legendary manager in Tony LaRussa, like his style or not (I don’t). That isn’t the makeup of a team that’s going to baffle baseball historians in future decades while they’re going through World Series winners trying to pick out the weak ones.

2) St. Louis might no longer be America’s Gonorrhea Capital, but the crown of “Most Dangerous City” sits atop the metropolis’ collective head just as surely as the World Series Tiara (thanks to Maura Johnston for the link). Camden’s been knocked all the way back to 5th place, which either heralds a renewal in South N.J. or more likely, St. Louis, Detroit and Flint picking up the slack.